Tales of a country girl from southwest Minnesota

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Fair days are a’comin

Just like the Little Engine that Could, I’ve been chanting the words, “I think I can, I think I can,” for the past few days as the 2012 Nobles County Fair gets closer. 4-H Entry Day is just a week away.

I’m sure I’m not the only one working against a deadline. The difference is, most of those stressing out right about now are 4-H’ers — those kids ages 6 to 19 that bring all of their wonderful projects to display and “make the fair go ’round.”

I’m just a little older than they are. (Hey — no need to laugh out loud!)

Every year I do this. I wait until about the middle of June and then realize I have less than a couple of months to get something stitched up and ready to enter in the open class needlework division at the Nobles County Fair.

Fortunately, I seem to always have a selection of UFO’s (unfinished objects) that I can select from and manage to finish by Entry Day. This year was no exception. After putting the final stitches on a Hardanger runner last week, I decided I might actually have time to finish another project.

So, Friday night, I discovered in my stash of UFOs a doily I started more than five years ago. (Don’t ask me why I quit working on it. Most needleworkers have to have multiple projects going at any one time so as not to get “bored.”)

By the time you read this, I will have moved on to the “wrapping” —the last stage before the ever-stressful process of cutting out the doily. One wrong move or slip of the scissors and this piece could easily end up in the wastebasket.

My stitching projects for the open class competition seem far less stressful than were my days as a 4-H’er, when I had a handful of goats to train and clip, pairs of chickens and turkeys to wash and fluff and at least half a dozen “non-livestock” projects to complete before Entry Day.

Then again, I’m not sure stress was quite the accurate word for those pre-fair tasks. There was the excitement, the anticipation …